With the release of her stunning new album, Modern Kosmology, Jane Weaver talks to John Freeman about the 13 records that shaped her musical universe. Portrait by Rebecca Lupton.

Ennio Morricone - ColoriThis is an album of Morricone's soundtrack work from films like Veruschka. One of my favourite films is Lizard In A Woman's Skin and this album contains 'La Lucertola' from the movie. Edda dell'Orso sings on that song and she is one of my favourite vocalists. This album features Morricone, [Alessandro] Alessandroni and [Bruno] Nicolai – as well as dell'Orso – which is why it is so good.

The first time I was in a band, we did some recording in the Pink Museum studio with Geoff [Davies] from Probe Records in Liverpool. When we went into the Pink Museum, Geoff lent me a load of Morricone records. That was when I first discovered Morricone's music. It was more of his Spaghetti Western stuff, which is massively inspirational. However, it wasn't until about 15 years ago that I began to discover the other aspects of his soundtrack work.

The story goes that Geoff had lent me these records in the studio and I went home and another artist used the studio and the records got stolen. So, for years, I couldn't listen to Morricone without the experience being tainted with guilt that I had allowed Geoff's records to be nicked.

However, this album makes the list as it contains some of my favourite film soundtracks and also one of my favourite singers. A lot of my choices are quite expansive in their sound. While I have always loved pop music and will still listen to chart music, for me to draw energy for creating music I prefer expansive or soundtrack-like music. That's why I like space rock. And on this album, there is a lot to listen to – it's a very big sound picture. As an artist, there is a lot on it to take and learn from, whether you are borrowing it or trying to emulate it.

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